


Fear of Closets

by theloverofdragons



Series: Awkward Moments [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Family, Humour, Sokka suffers as a result, Toph loves embarrassing people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 08:16:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6231007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theloverofdragons/pseuds/theloverofdragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sokka has a strange attitude towards closets. His daughter wants to know why. Toph is happy to oblige.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear of Closets

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender. That privilege goes to Bryke and Nickelodeon

"TUI AND LA, AANG! WHAT ARE YOU TWO _DOING_?!"

Toph raises her head from where it was resting on the table in Snoozles' and Fan Girl's kitchen, and shifts her foot in the direction she heard the former's shriek come from. Sensing the (rather loud) vibrations in the ground, she determines that Snoozles is standing in the entrance to a small room ( _could it be a closet? Sweet spirits, that would be too_ good _!_ ) containing Twinkletoes and his latest fancy, Acolyte Mi-Ran.

"Sokka, calm down! This isn't as bad as you're making it out to be!" Twinkletoes sounds desperate, and slightly irritated at the intrusion.

"YOU TWO ARE ENGAGING IN HANKY PANKY IN BOOMERANG'S ROOM! OH MY POOR, SWEET BOOMERANG!"

"Your boomerang has a room?" Mi-Ran has never met Sokka before, and if Toph wasn't finding this so amusing, she'd pity the Air Acolyte for what she is about to get into.

"OF COURSE MY BOOMERANG HAS A ROOM! THIS IS BOOMERANG WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, FOR LA'S SAKE! WHAT, WAS I SUPPOSED TO MAKE MY BOOMERANG JUST SLEEP IN A DRAWER?! AFTER WE DEFEATED SPARKY SPARKY BOOM MAN TOGETHER?!"

"Sokka, you renamed him Combustion Man-"

"NOT THE POINT AANG!"

At this point, tears are streaming down Toph's sightless eyes, while Mi-Ran sounds perplexed. "But…I thought this was just a storage closet?"

Snoozles loses it. "NO! THIS IS NOT A STORAGE CLOSET! EVEN IF IT WASN'T BOOMERANG'S ROOM, IT WOULD NOT BE A CLOSET! THERE ARE NO CLOSETS IN MY HOUSE! JUST SMALL ROOMS FOR KEEPING STUFF IN!"

Toph can't help herself and bursts into peals of laughter as Snoozles stomps away in his typical dramatic fashion, and Twinkletoes tries to reassure Mi-Ran that this is normal behaviour, or as normal as things get when Sokka is involved; "Look, he just has a funny thing with closets…don't ask, it's a long story…and I do mean a _long_ story."

Wiping her eyes, Toph shifts her position and props her feet up on the table, ignoring the fact that Sweetness will nag her about it if she catches her. She grabs the _lap cheong_ she had been eating before she was disturbed, fully intent on finishing it, when her sharp ears pick up on light footsteps coming towards the kitchen. They pause for a moment outside the open door, before Yue skips into the kitchen.

"Hiya, Aunt Toph! Ooh, is that meat?!"

Toph snorts. Everyone always says that Yue is truly her father's daughter, in both looks (not that that means anything to Toph) and attitude, and nowhere is that more painfully obvious than the girl's inherited obsession with meat, and all things meat-related.

"Yup," she responds, taking another bite and practically _hearing_ the nine year old start to drool. "I saw your mother putting these in one of the cupboards, so I decided to help myself."

"But…Aunt Toph…" Yue sounds like she's frowning. "Um…you're blind…so how would you…?"

Toph chortles. "You caught me kiddo. Mercifully, you don't take after ol' Snoozles in the regard that for the 'Idea Guy', he can be pretty easy to fool. They should be on the counter, unless Momo moved them without me knowing."

Yue beams (or at least Toph presumes she does), and skips over to where Suki told Toph she was leaving the rest of the _lap cheong_. Evidently she is successful in finding the Ba Sing Se delicacy, as she makes a happy noise before joining Toph at the table. They sit in silence for a few minutes; listening to the tell-tale _whoosh_ of firebending from outside, where Sparky is teaching Kaida some of the more advanced beginner's forms.

Yue swallows the last of her _lap cheong_. "Aunt Toph? Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"No! Not _that,_ Aunt Toph!"

Toph waves her hand nonchalantly. "Eh, I'm kidding, you know that. What d'you want to ask?"

"Well…did you hear Dad freaking out at Uncle Aang earlier?"

Toph snorts. "I'd be surprised if the whole of Kyoshi Island didn't hear him." She has a feeling that she knows where this conversation is going, and if she's right then she is going to have _so much fun_.

Yue giggles. "He was pretty loud wasn't he? Anyways, it got me thinking…Dad _does_ have a funny thing with closets, doesn't he?"

_And once again, the Blind Bandit is correct_. "Very much so," Toph replies aloud. "To the extent that he won't go near one unless he's accompanied by someone. And he tries his best to keep me, your Aunt Katara, and Uncle Sparky as far away from them as possible."

"Why?" Yue asks the question Toph has been dying to hear, and she gives a mental fist pump. "Did he have a bad experience in a closet or somethin'?"

"Not as such," Toph drawls, picking bits of dirt out from under her fingernails. "He's actually had quite good experiences in closets. It's what happened _outside_ the closet that he's got a problem with."

* * *

"The first time it happened was way back in the Western Air Temple. Sparky and Snoozles had returned from their 'fishing trip' at the Boiling Rock, along with Fan Girl, Chit Sang, and your grandpa, so we were all finally feelin' pretty good ever since the Day of the Black Sun invasion had fallen flat on its face."

_Toph smirked from where she was casually lounging in one of the Air Temple's lower courtyards as she caught the scent of stew from the kitchen. Sweetness still wasn't living up to her nickname when it came to Sparky, but after he helped Snoozles rescue their father, friend, and some random guy, she had begrudgingly allowed him to help her with dinner, using the supplies from the airship they had stolen from Azula and her two minions._

_Speaking of the Boiling Rock…Toph had made the acquaintance of Chit Sang and Chief Hakoda (nickname still in progress), but she had yet to reconnect with Suki, having not encountered her since their relatively awkward meeting at Serpent's Pass (for the love of all the spirits, she was in the water where she_ can't freaking see _. How was she to know that it was Suki who had dived in rather than Snoozles?!). Shifting her foot, she determined that Haru and Chit Sang were bending in one of the upper courtyards, while Teo and the Duke watched, and that Chief Hakoda was talking to Twinkletoes. Sparky and Sugar Queen were obviously in the kitchen, but she couldn't get an exact location on Snoozles or Fan Girl. She knew they were in the lower right hand corridors, but they kept moving around._

_Squaring her shoulders, Toph used her earthbending to boost herself onto her feet and set off in the direction of the two lovebirds._

"When I got to the corridor where I had last sensed your parents, they had mercifully settled down in one place; a small, cramped space which Twinkletoes said the monks would have used as a storage closet. And not wanting to taint your innocent mind just yet, they were…catching up in there, shall we say."

_The sound of high pitched giggling, followed by low moans, reached Toph's ears from where she was standing on the other side of the open doorway, the actual door itself having either been destroyed in the Fire Nation attack, or rotted away after a century. The blind earthbender's eyebrows rose slightly, before her trademark devious smirk appeared on her face. She took a few steps backwards, leaning against the wall facing the closet, and folded her arms._

_Another giggle sounded, this time from Suki, and then some mumbles from Snoozles, before the two exited their obvious make-out spot, standing so close together, they were practically one person. However, at the sight of the smirking earthbender, they froze._

" _S'up?" Toph grinned as she felt their heartbeats hammering._

" _Uh…hey Toph…" Snoozles gulped. "Um…how long have you…?"_

" _Long enough, Snoozles, long enough," Toph drawled, her smirk growing wider as they shuffled their feet awkwardly. "Y'know, you're lucky right now that I can't see you, cause I'm pretty sure that you both look a mess. So if I were you, I'd get tidied up before Sweetness calls us for dinner, and everyone realises what you two have been getting up to in here."_

_As she sauntered away, she heard Fan Girl's poorly concealed squeak, and Snoozles' even more poorly concealed curse. Her smirk remained on her face throughout the rest of the evening, and whenever Suki or Sokka would look at her, their heartbeats would begin to pound so loud she was surprised no one else heard them. At one point, Hakoda asked Snoozles why he was blushing so hard, causing the Water Tribe warrior to choke on his stew and claim allergies._

"Of course, catching them one time in the Western Air Temple wouldn't be enough for Snoozles to have the reaction towards closets that he does now. Nope, the next time was a couple of weeks later on Ember Island."

_If Twinkletoes wanted to have even_ half _a chance of defeating the Fire Lord, he really needed to get his act together with his earthbending, Toph grumbled to herself as she made her way from the private beach where she had been training Aang, back up to Sparky's beach house._

_Throughout their training session, Twinkletoes had been distracted, probably by that horrific play they had been to see two nights before, and as a result, his earthbending had been getting sloppy. With Sozin's Comet coming pretty damn soon, this was the last thing the Gaang needed, so Toph had promptly buried the Avatar in sand and rock, with the strict orders to only get out of it using his earthbending, 'no cutting corners Twinkles, and if I even_ think _you're using the other elements, I will ensure that you're the next one who has to take Snoozles shopping'._

_Sparky and Sweetness were still out getting supplies from Ember Island's market, so Toph began making a beeline for the kitchen, hoping she'd be able to metal bend enough utensils before they got back, and provide some much needed comic relief when Sugar Queen had one of her meltdowns._

"I was almost at the kitchen, when what do I hear? Only some more giggling and shuffling about in a relatively large closet. And I'll give you three guesses as to who was in there."

_Toph threw the door to the closet open, not so she could tell who was in there (she'd figured_ that _out through her earthbending and basic process of elimination), but rather for dramatic effect. Evidently it worked, as Snoozles uttered a shriek a cat-owl would be proud of, springing apart from Suki, but then immediately clutching her close in front of him as a human shield._

" _Once again," Toph drawled, casually picking dirt out from under her fingernails. "Be grateful that I can't see, as I'm pretty sure that your face is trying to imitate a tomato-carrot, Snoozles."_

" _It is pretty red," Suki mumbled, shrugging her shoulders helplessly, as Sokka uttered a strangled gurgle, and Toph cackled._

" _I…uh…just…this…_ Toph _!" the Water Tribe Warrior wailed. "This is the second time, for La's sake! That's two times too many! Suki and I wanted some…alone time, as we never get any!"_

_Toph scoffed. "Don't give me that, Snoozles! Sparky told me about what he saw when he went into your tent!"_

" _The_ bro-code _-!"_

" _Sokka!" Fan Girl snapped, effectively shutting her boyfriend up before he could go on a rant about how Zuko breaking the bro-code was_ the worst thing to happen since they ran out of meat _, before turning back to the highly amused earthbender._

" _Toph, I'm sorry that you've had to see this twice-"_

" _Technically, I didn't_ see _anything."_

_Suki sighed. "What I'm trying to say, as Sokka seems to have now become incoherent, is that we didn't mean for you to catch us either time, and we're sorry, and hopefully this won't happen again."_

" _Careful Fan Girl," Toph threw the lovebirds an exaggerated wink, before sauntering away. "Don't want to jinx it, do you?"_

"I can assure you kiddo, that was most definitely _not_ the last time I caught your parents getting snuggly in a closet. Some of the times, I _did_ do it on purpose, just to watch Snoozles freak out, but the more times I caught them, the less they actually went into any of the closets. None of the others suspected, but even so, your father began avoiding them like the pentapox. Whenever he and I were in a corridor which contained a closet, he would make some far-fetched excuse and leg it. Of course, the thing that really cinched the deal in regards to his phobia was after Sozin's Comet, when we had been staying in the Fire Nation Palace for a few days."

" _Ya know," Toph commented as she and Snoozles made their way to their guest quarters in the Royal Wing. "I know the past three Fire Lords were all pyromaniacs with superiority complexes, but I would've expected to see a bit more in terms of décor."_

" _I know!" Snoozles grunted, shifting the many scrolls he had 'permanently borrowed' from the Fire Palace Library. "It's just red, fire, red, gold, red and more red everywhere and…" He paused, and turned, presumably to glower at the smirking earthbender. "…Why do you do that so much?"_

" _Because you make it worth doing," Toph snorted, reaching out and socking him on the shoulder._

_Sokka yelped, nearly dropping the scrolls. "Careful!" he squawked, trying to regain his balance. "Hey…where are the others by the way?"_

_Toph shrugged. "Ehh, I think Suki's in the armoury and Twinkletoes is raiding the kitchen. As for Sparky and Sweetness, she mentioned something about another healing session."_

" _It's pretty good he's doing so well after taking a super-charged lightning bolt to the chest from his crazy sister," Sokka mused, as two guards opened the doors to the Royal Wing and they stepped through. "Remember how long Aang spent healing after Azula shot him?"_

" _Sparky never does think things through," Toph mumbled._

" _Never has, probably never will," Snoozles agreed. "At least he now listens to Iroh to help him through all the Fire Lord-y stuff he'll be getting up to."_

"Well, as we were going to dump all the scrolls Snoozles had 'collected' in his room and then probably join Twinkletoes in the kitchen, when we found an innocent little closet between my room and Sweetness' and practically straight across from Snoozles'. Little did he know, there was a bit of a surprise awaiting us…well, him. I totally saw it coming."

" _AH-HA! Just the thing I was looking for!"_

" _What?"_

" _A storage closet where I can keep all these scrolls until Jerkbender (wait, do I have to call him Jerk Lord now?) gets me a chest to put them in," Sokka sounded far too smug for his own good. "And since you're with me, nothing bad can ha-WHAT IN THE NAME OF TUI, LA, YUE AND ALL THE OTHER SPIRITS WHOSE NAMES I SHOULD KNOW BUT CAN'T REMEMBER BECAUSE OF WHAT I AM SEEING?!"_

" _Sokka!" the unmistakeable irritated (and relatively out of breath) voice of Sugar Queen rang out from inside the closet, where she was pressed up against Sparky. "What are you doing?!"_

" _I was trying to put these scrolls somewhere!" Snoozles snapped back, having dropped said scrolls and adding to Toph's growing amusement. "But that's not the point! The point is what are YOU doing, Katara?!"_

" _What does it look like?!" Sweetness snapped, evidently snatching another kiss from Sparky if his heartbeat and Sokka's disgusted gurgle were anything to go by._

" _IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TO MAKE ME AN UNCLE!" he howled, brandishing a scroll in what he thought was a threatening manner, while Toph tried (not very) hard to contain her laughter._

" _Everything alright?" the voice of Suki floated over to them, as she appeared suddenly and ran down the corridor to join them outside the closet. "I heard noises…oh. Well it's about time that happened!"_

_Sparky and Sugar Queen's noises of confusion were masked by Snoozles' shriek. "HUH? Suki, what do you mean 'it's about time'? Y-you wanted to see me become an uncle?!"_

" _Sokka, that is_ not _what's going on here!"_

" _Sokka, all I meant was that I had my suspicions, and they've just been confirmed," Fan Girl soothed, rubbing her boyfriend's shoulder._

" _I saw it coming ages ago," Toph decided to inform them._

" _Of course you did," Sparky muttered, earning himself a swat from Sugar Queen. Snoozles then whirled on him, finger outstretched and boomerang out._

" _JERKBENDER! In...in…canoodling in a…oh La…a storage closet with my_ sister _, you have violated the bro-code! I am now honour bound (which is something_ you _can't argue with, so ha!) to avenge this…misdemeanour!"_

" _How's about I give you unlimited access to the palace kitchens for a month instead?" Sparky suggested, still not untangling himself from Sweetness, Toph noticed._

" _Make it a year and I'll consider it."_

" _A year?! The cooks are barely coping with you for less than a week! Even a month is stretching it!"_

" _Then NO DEAL!" Snoozles raised his boomerang and prepared to charge, before a shift of Toph's foot sent him skidding to the right and falling face first on the floor._

" _Right," Sugar Queen briskly took charge, before Snoozles had a chance to start talking again. "Suki take Sokka to the armoury. Hopefully the pointy things will distract him for a bit. Toph, go and join Aang in the kitchen and for La's sake, don't break anything or terrorise any more servants. Zuko, we need to get back to your healing session, and get that grin off your face, you actually_ need _it if you want to be in any fit shape for your coronation next week."_

" _You got it Katara," Suki grabbed Snoozles' shoulder once he picked himself up and steered him away from the closet, closely followed by a still-chortling Toph. "We'll meet you in the kitchen once you're finished?"_

" _Yes, yes," Sweetness called after them. "We were going to wait to do this, but we will explain then, I promise!"_

" _Strange," Toph mused as the trio stepped out from the Royal Wing, the guards showing no reactions in regards to what had just transpired. "I didn't realise that they'd be continuing the healing session in the closet."_

* * *

"So the reason that Dad is scared of closets is because you kept catching him and Mum making out in ones, and then because he caught Aunt Katara and Uncle Zuko doing the same?" Yue has, remarkably, remained quiet and attentive throughout Toph's story.

"Pretty much," she replies, reaching for her _lap cheong_ , only to realise that Fan Girl's daughter can be as stealthy as her mother sometimes, and swiped it. "But when you put it like that, it doesn't sound as amusing."

Yue giggles. "It was a pretty funny story, Aunt Toph." She hops off her chair and skips out of the kitchen. "Thanks for 'xplaining 'bout Dad's funny thing with closets!" she calls. "And for the _lap cheong_!"

"Yeah, yeah, my pleasure," Toph mutters, kicking her feet back up on the table and shutting her eyes. "You're lucky I like you so much."

All too soon, her nap is disturbed by the entrance of Fan Girl and Sweetness, who both sit down on the opposite end of the table to her.

"I presume that you two are giving me some kind of look," Toph begins cheerfully. "Never mind that it doesn't actually work on me."

Sugar Queen sighs. "Toph. Earlier, Sokka caught Aang and Mi-Ran in one of the closets here. You, of all people, know what he's like with things like that."

"I did nothing," Toph interjects. "I was in here the whole time, having some shut-eye."

Suki also sighs. "We never said you weren't, Toph. What we were getting to was that about twenty minutes ago, Yue comes into the sitting room, where Sokka was giving Aang and Mi-Ran threatening looks over his boomerang. She turns around and says 'don't worry Dad; I'm sure they didn't _mean_ for you to catch them like you kept getting caught. And anyway, it didn't sound like they were trying to make you an uncle'."

"I didn't know it was possible to _make_ all those noises," Sugar Queen muses, taking a long sip of tea. "I had to subject him to a thorough medical examination. You wouldn't happen to know _how_ Yue found out about the development of Sokka's phobia of closets, would you Toph?"

Toph struggles to contain the small cackles which have erupted. "Of course not, Fire Lady Fussybritches," she attempts to sound contrite. "Why on earth would you think _that_?"

"Uh-huh," Suki sounds disbelieving. "And the other children aren't going to find out yet either, _are they Toph_?"

The blind earthbender smirks.

"Careful Fan Girl. Don't want to jinx it, do you?"

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, this was a lot of fun to write and I'm hoping you all enjoyed it too :) Many thanks go to everyone who read, reviewed, or left kudos *hugs you all*
> 
> About Yue; Sukka's second child and only daughter, named for obvious reasons, has brown hair and blue eyes, trains in the arts of the Kyoshi Warriors (when she's older), and is basically a miniature female Sokka
> 
> Anyway, see you in the next one! :)


End file.
